Heat
by mangaluva
Summary: Set after A Phantom Theif. After several months of travelling and research, Kaito convinces Shinichi to relax on the beach. Oneshot. KaitoxShinichi. Happy Valentine's Day!


"Wooooooow," Kaito drawled, peering unobtrusively over his sunglasses. "Check _her_ out!"

"Kaito, we didn't come to the beach to… oh," Shinichi said, looking up from his book and catching sight of the girl in the silver bikini that Kaito was watching. Or rather, the girl in the silver bikini _bottom_.

"Hot damn, I love France," Kaito muttered, watching her go. "I love being able to openly be at the beach with my boyfriend. Nobody notices or cares if you're scoping bikinis, or lack thereof…"

"Pervert," Shinichi commented dryly, returning to his book. Kaito rotated ninety degrees, lying his head on Shinichi's back rather than next to him.

"And you love it," he chuckled, leaning his head to the side to kiss the small of Shinichi's back before leaning back and pushing his sunglasses back up his nose. Shinichi smiled a little, not really focusing on his book. He had to agree that, while of course it was necessary to research the death myths of as many cultures as possible, to look for common themes and aspects, it could get difficult in those countries where homosexuality was illegal. Generally, he and Kaito had to pretend to be brothers, something they could easily pass for, often something people assumed without being told. In some countries, they could even get away with holding hands under this guise. In quiet moments, both of them were capable of leaving their bodies, to interact in their metaphysical bodies without anyone seeing them. But Shinichi hated the pretence. He'd had more than enough of lying about who he was while he was Conan. And Kaito was the one person he didn't want to lie about.

He returned to his book, doing some follow-up reading to one of the myths that interested him most, that he'd learned when they had been in Egypt a few months before. The curator had told Shinichi some interesting things about the Egyptian concepts of life and death, such as the five parts of the soul and- the part that most interested Shinichi- the idea of _Akh_, a sort of ghost or spirit made of the combination of your _Ka_, your lifeforce, and your _Ba_, the part of your soul that was… well, you. After death, the Egyptians had believed, the _Akh_ returned to the body every night to rest and restore its strength, and travelled back to the world of the dead with the dawn. Without a body to travel to, the _Akh_ would fade away, into _Duat_- nothingness.

So, Shinichi had asked, at what point of pregnancy did a human acquire _Ba_ and _Ka?_ And then, much later, he had asked: what if an _Akh_ did not return to its own, dead, body, but a living one…

_What if an ingenious Akh chose to enter a body that did not yet have a soul, before the Gods got their chance? What if more than one did? What if they did it time and again, rather than return to the afterlife that could not sustain them without a body? If there was one thing he had learned, it was that truth was what people believed, and if a person truly believed that without a body they would fade to nothing, so it would be…_

"Shiniiiichiiiii? Oi, Shin-chan!"

"I told you not to call me that," Shinichi mumbled, pushing his sunglasses off of his nose as he rubbed his eyes sleepily. The sun was much lower in the sky than he thought it should be; he must have fallen asleep for a few hours. As he sat up, he could feel the oily dampness of fresh sunscreen on his back; Kaito smiled at him, tucking the bottle into his bag.

"I couldn't let you get all sunburned," he chuckled, handing Shinichi his shirt. "Not after borrowing that body, I swear I'd feel it myself. Besides, you looked so cute sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you…"

"Thanks," Shinichi said, a little sheepish about having fallen asleep. He stood off, shaking some sand off his towel and rolling it up. "I guess I drifted off thinking about _Akh_… it's a curious idea, and fits in well with several other ghost myths from disparate cultures, which means there might be some truth in it…"

"Cool," Kaito said, picking up his bag. "Your soul might go all the way back to the Egyptians?"

"Probably further," Shinichi said, taking Kaito's hand as they started to walk down the beach, headed back towards their hotel. "I don't know. I'd like to find out, though."

"Me too," Kaito agreed, "but let's spend another day here, just chilling, okay? It's the best time of the year to be on the beaches here!"

"So you can scope out more swimsuits?" Shinichi laughed, expecting Kaito to tease him for agreeing with most of his "phwoar" verdicts.

"Nah," Kaito said, leaning over and kissing Shinichi. "So I can be with you."

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_I wanted to post a little something before I leave for five months, and thought a lot of people have been asking about _A Spirit Detective_, it's nowhere near completion- so instead, here's a little (reaaaaallllyyy little) oneshot from sometime during it. As is probably typical for me, it's not exactly heavy on the romance, but it's there :P This will be the last thing I post for a while. Wish me luck while I'm in India!_

_Neither Detective Conan nor Magic Kaito are mine, because I struggle to come up with one murder plot a _year_, let alone a month. The concepts of _Ka, Ba, Akh _and _Duat_ are all of the culture of ancient Egypt. _


End file.
